Publius Pundit: “Last year Columbia University invited maniacal Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to give a speech to its students. A furious backlash resulted and the invitation was rescinded. Think that ended the matter? Guess again.”

Roger Simon: “I have a question for the Columbia crowd, since Holocaust deniers are welcome, would you allow a speaker in favor of a return to black slavery? I hope not. Well, that’s how I feel about Holocaust deniers.”

Booman Tribune: “Under the circumstances, I don’t have a problem with denying him a chance to visit ground zero. If I were a politician, I would be reluctant to accommodate him. But this oneupmanship is really unseemly. We really need to stop and consider, every once in a while, how our actions are perceived in the world.”

Riehl World View: “Our spineless politicians may kowtow to the UN and the likes of Ahmadinejad, but, as Americans, we do not have to.”

Right Wing Nuthouse: “I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of what anyone could imagine would be a bigger insult to the dead of 9/11. Yassar Arafat laying a wreath in Shanksville? How about Nasty Nasrallah being invited to tour the new wing of the Pentagon, rebuilt after the attacks?”

Michelle Malkin: “Anyone in NYC know how to apply for a permit to organize a counter-protest to defend Ground Zero? Is it too late?”

Altas Shrugs: “Join the National Rally to End the Threat Now Monday, September 24
12:00 noon, rain or shine
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
2nd Avenue at 47th Street
(across from the United Nations) New York City
I expect every Atlas reader that can be there, to be there. We need to make a statement.”

Melanie Phillips: “Why is the US even considering allowing this man to use America as a stage for his own cynical propaganda?”

Powerline: “There is a suicidal mania that grips elite opinion in the United States. It is exemplified nowhere better than in our elite educational institutions.”

The Oxford Medievalist: “Unfortunately, while Ahmadinejad may ultimately be stifled in his attempt to visit Ground Zero, he will be welcomed with open arms to Columbia University, a university who’s students heckle and shout down a number of speakers who’s views they don’t agree with, but who are willing to be addressed by a terrorist thug like Ahmadinejad.”

Jihad Watch: “Why make excuses? The matters of principle involved should be aired unapologetically.”

Fausta’s blog: “Ahmadinejad and the regime he represents hold the same radical, murderous philosophy that lead to the assasination of 3,000 on September 11, 2001. He will be laying a wreath for the murderous terrorists, not the victims.”

Michael Ledeen @ The Corner: “The current kerfluffle over Adhmadinejad’s proposed pilgrimage to Ground Zero shows once again how bad ideas drag us irresistibly to bad policy.”

Dr Sanity: “Do you doubt that [Columbia's] Lee Bollinger would have coddled up to Hitler in much the same way if these “superior” senisbilities of postmodern man had been prevalent on campus in the 30′s?”

Maxine: “Truthfully, the NYPD, New York Mayor Bloomberg, and all other people in authority should have been completely clear and unified in their response.”

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1.
Peter Ingemi

I don’t see what the big fuss is, particularly about Columbia U. It’s not as if they were inviting someone like Larry Summers to speak.

Seriously I find it very hard to get exicted about this stuff anymore. My expectations are so low that it just doesn’t phase me anymore.

Mahmoud wants to go to Ground Zero to pay homage to the muslims that the flew the planes into the Twin Towers. It gives him a chance to spit in the eye of the infidel. Anyone that thinks otherwise is a fool.

This may not be the most helpful of comments, but maybe it will strike a chord with people:

I hope a dog piddles on his leg while he’s there. (Dogs are not well-regarded in Islam.) And if it happens, I hope that photographers from the NY tabloids are there to record it for their front pages–and for the Web.

Under the U.N. participation act and our commitment as the host country, we have agreed going back to the beginning of the U.N. to let any head of state or any country that’s a member of the U.N. send its officially accredited leaders and diplomats in to participate in U.N.-related activities. That’s a pain in the neck, frankly, but that’s part of the price of being the host country. What we never gave up was the right to limit their travel outside of Turtle Bay and wherever their hotel happens to be. [The Iranians] will try to raise a fuss about that. I’m sure the visit was nothing but propaganda…..

After a meeting to review the Iranian President’s request, New York Police Department, the Secret Service and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, “Construction is underway at the site and no visitors are allowed because of safety concerns.”

The Correct Response:

The NYPD, the Borough of Manhattan, the City of New York, the State of New York and the nation of the United States does not cater to the requests of terrorists and the states that sponsor them. Request Denied!

Question(s):

Based upon the many statements of hostility toward humanity and the outright destruction of one segment of our world in humanity (Jews), why would the United States issue this guy, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a visa in the first place?

Where are the levels of enforceable standards in this situation?

UPDATE: The Iranian leader plans to go to Ground Zero on Monday at 10 AM with a Secret Service escort – over NYPD objections. (WABC-TV)

My father, MS Civil Engineering from Columbia University, 1954 – well, his ashes are now spinning with such force that they may well form a new star to burn that place. He was a Greek immigrant who fell deeply in love with the United States and its liberty.

As an Iranian American, I am digusted to see a “Liberal” institution honoring Ahamdinejs with an invitation. It may not seem to American that this gesture is honoring, but to Iranian it does. I thought “”liberal” institution are for the people not for the regimes.

If Ahamdinejad gets invited, he will play this differently back home. There is already full of consipracy theroiests in Iranian society, and by having him talking in an American university, Iranian people will see this as American government support of Ahamdinejad. Average Iranian people don’t know how the institutions work here.

this is a big slap to Iranian people if Ahmadijejad gets invited…this is a big MISTAKE.

Take him to an NFL football game and have him toss the coin. Tell him it’s customary to join in the opening kick off. Leave him on the field, 4 quarters. He can play both ways (offense and defense). He can throw as many red flags as he wants.

Freedom’s Watch President Bradley A. Blakeman released a statement and a copy of the print advertisement it has requested to be run in the Monday edition of the New York Times.

“Freedom’s Watch could not sit back and allow a terrorist to come to
America masquerading as a world leader. We have an obligation to warn the
world of the dangers of a nuclear Iran and to uncover the true intent, that
being, the destruction of the United States and the State of Israel.

Let’s be clear, Iran today kills American soldiers in Iraq and they will not stop
there,” said Bradley A. Blakeman, President of Freedom’s Watch.

The text of the advertisement follows:

Ahmadinejad Is A Terrorist

Columbia University is wrong to give him a platform.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatens our nation and the
freedoms we value. He has supported attacks on our soldiers and our allies.
He should be treated as the terrorist that he is.

Yet, while Columbia gives a terrorist like Ahmadinejad a platform to
speak, they refuse to allow the ROTC on campus.

What has happened to this prestigious university?

People who support killing Americans are welcome. But the military that
defends them is not.

Columbia should be ashamed of its actions.

Freedom’s Watch knows that America and the forces of freedom are right.
We know the threat of terrorism is real. And we know Democracy must
prevail.

The terrorists and their appeasers are wrong.

“And God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon
experience a world without the United States and Zionism.”
- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
(CNN, 10/27/05)